TxDOT Hopes To Cash In By Publishing Top Toll Road Violators

The Texas Department of Transportation says they hope shaming toll road violators will lead to the collection millions of dollars in unpaid toll violations.

“It’s no secret Texas has a fundraising challenge when it comes to funding transportation,” says TxDOT spokeswoman Veronica Beyer. “The goal is to get [violators] to call us and get on some type of payment plan. Again there’s 27-million dollars worth of unpaid tolls out there. That’s money that could be used to pay [state] debt, [or] to bond the operation of these toll roads.”

The published list features the Top 25 toll violators in the state, and is a result of SB 1792, a new law that passed during the last legislative session. Beyer says publishing their names is not the only approach they are taking.

“This law not only gives us the authority to make their names public but to share their names with local enforcement,” Beyer points out.

That would lead to the second phase of TxDOT’s project, whereby toll violators would be banned from driving on Texas toll roads, and eventually blocked for renewing their vehicle registration. TxDOT says just over 28,000 drivers in Texas have 100 or more unpaid tolls. Central Texas drivers have the largest percentage of that group.